Aeolis Palus is a plain between the northern wall of Gale Crater and the northern foothills of Aeolis Mons on planet Mars and is centered at Lua error in Module:Coordinates at line 668: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found..[1]

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Spacecraft exploration

On August 5, 2012, at 10:32 p.m. PDT/mission time (August 6, 2012 at 5:32 UTC), mission control at JPL received a signal from the NASA Curiosity rover that it had successfully landed in "Yellowknife" Quad 51[5][6][7][8] of Aeolis Palus.[9] The rover's mission is to explore the surface area of Gale Crater focusing first near its landing site on Aeolis Palus and then venturing into the nearby foothills of Aeolis Mons (unofficially, "Mount Sharp") to investigate its geological features and strata.[2][3][4][10]

On December 16, 2014, NASA reported detecting, based on measurements by the Curiosity rover, an unusual increase, then decrease, in the amounts of methane in the atmosphere of the planet Mars; in addition, organic chemicals were detected in powder drilled from a rock by the Curiosity rover. Also, based on deuterium to hydrogen ratio studies, much of the water at Gale Crater on Mars was found to have been lost during ancient times, before the lakebed in the crater was formed; afterwards, large amounts of water continued to be lost.[21][22][23]

Bradbury Landing

"Bradbury Landing" is a named location on Aeolis Palus. It is where the Curiosity roverlanded.[24][25] The coordinates of the landing site are: Lua error in Module:Coordinates at line 668: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found..[26][27] The landing site location was named for science fiction author Ray Bradbury.[25] NASA announced the name on Bradbury's 92nd birthday, August 22, in honor of the author who died a few months earlier on June 5, 2012.[25] Michael Meyer, NASA program scientist for Curiosity, said "This was not a difficult choice for the science team. Many of us and millions of other readers were inspired in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the possibility of life on Mars."[25] Bradbury wrote a collection of stories called The Martian Chronicles in the 1940s.[25] The Curiosity team left a message on Twitter "In tribute, I dedicate my landing spot on Mars to you, Ray Bradbury. Greetings from Bradbury Landing!"[25] NASA released a video of Bradbury reading his poem 'If Only We Had Taller Been'.[28][29]